How To Play The Yu-Gi-Oh! OCG/TCG For Absolute Beginners

Subject: How To Play The Yu-Gi-Oh! OCG/TCG For Absolute Beginners Fri Jun 15, 2012 2:08 am

For new players that are getting into the Yuugiou (Yu-Gi-Oh!) OCG/TCG this is my guide to how to play the Yu-Gi-Oh card game. We’ll start from basics to learning about cards and other miscellaneous in this learning about the game. The card(s) name used here will be in English TCG format and not Japanese OCG names. I will be using the English TCG full card names, no abbreviated names for beginners here. This guide is for beginners for Yu-Gi-Oh! Mainly, this will be into lots of sections, have fun reading hope you all beginners can comprehend all of this formation, it might take a while. If I can remember this, you can too if you put your mind to it. Now let’s get started.

If you look at the Monster Card Zone, you might figure out that you can only play Monster Cards on that zone above your Spell/Trap Card Zone. A maximum of any 5 Monsters can be played regardless of what type they are and their position.

Underneath the Monster Card Zone lies the Spell/Trap card sits waiting to be occupied by your choosing of Spell/Trap cards. A maximum of 5 Spell/Trap cards can stay there, you cannot put a Field Spell card. A Field Spell card is placed left of the Spell/Trap Card Zone, above the Extra Deck. You will notice there is something called an Extra Deck which is formally known as the Fusion Deck, you put the following Monster Card Types in this deck ( Fusion Monster Card, Synchro Monster Cards and XYZ Monster Cards ) Don’t be thinking Ritual Monster cards go in there anytime soon.

GRAVEYARD

When cards are destroyed/ sent to the graveyard those cards will be thrown into the Graveyard. If no cards say “ cards will be Removed From Play/ Banished “ the cards will be played in the Graveyard after use/destroyed. IF monster’s switch between the controller to the other duelist, they would enter the owner’s graveyard an example would be if you gained control of my Sangan card and I destroyed it, Sangan would enter my Graveyard not yours and since it’s my Sangan to begin with from the start I can add a card from my deck to my hand, this obviously applies if I took your monster(s) as well when destroyed and activating their effects.

Underneath your Graveyard is where you put your Dueling Deck or called Main Deck, Deck. This is where you place your 40+ cards in your deck to duel with. When you and your opponent start off the duel, both players will begin with a starting hand of 5 cards.

THE 6 PHASES OF THE GAME

When you begin the duel, you will go through a 6 step game.1. Draw Phase ~ You draw 1 card to replenish your hand with a new card.2. Stand By Phase ~ You pay/maintain certain cards on the field, cards such as [Mirror Wall, The Unfriendly Amazon, Yubel e.t.c] besides that nothing really important really happens at this phase3. MainPhase 1 ~ During this phase you can normal summon/ set 1 monster on the field and activate/set as many Spell/Trap cards as you wish as long as you have space to use them.4. Battle Phase ~ This phase you conduct your monsters for combat and fight the enemy’s monsters.5. Main Phase 2 ~ If you did not normal summon/set a monster from Main Phase 1, you can normal summon/set at this phase. You can also set/activate Spell/Trap cards as if it was Main Phase 1.6. End Phase ~ You let your opponent know that you finished your turn and that he/she/ can begin their’s.

DISCARD CARDS FROM YOUR HAND

Left of the Graveyard pile is where you put your Banished cards which you or your opponent may put there. You cannot use these cards unless you can send them back in play cards such as Miracle Dig as an example. As you duel your hand may start growing with more cards in your hand you cannot keep every card in your hand, once your hand reaches 7 or more cards in your hand you will have to discard as many cards during your end phase until your hand reaches 6 cards. You only discard cards If you hold 7+ cards when its your end phase. In other words Draw Phase (holds 7+ cards), Standby Phase (holds 7+ cards), Main Phase 1 (7+ cards), Battle Phase (7+ cards), Main Phase 2 (7+ cards), Ends Phase (7+ cards) since your holding that many cards time to ditch until you hold 6 cards.

ATTRIBUTES

Monster cards have attributes, these attributes can be grouped into 7 different classes. The 7 classes are ( Earth, Fire, Dark, Wind, Water, Light and Divine ). Very few monster cards can have multiple attributes as part of their effect.

TYPES

Since monster cards can have attributes, monster cards can be classified by type. There are 22 different types monster cards can be classified into. The 22 types are ( Aqua, Beast, Beast-Warrior, Dinosaur, Divine-Beast, Dragon, Fairy, Fiend, Fish, Insect, Machine, Plant, Psychic, Pyro, Reptile, Rock, Sea Serpent, Spellcaster, Thunder, Warrior, Winged Beast, Zombie ). You might notice that there is a type called “ Creator God “ that type appears only in the Yu-Gi-Oh! Game Duelist Of The Roses, so don’t need to really count that in a video game exclusive type.

HAND At the beginning of the duel all players draw 5 cards at the start of the game. The 5 cards in your hand that you start off with are called your beginning hand. During your first draw phase you draw 1 card and continue with the other 5 phases of the game until its your opponent’s turn, then you repeat the process all over again starting with the Draw Phase by drawing 1 card to replenish your hand.

Card Information:

NOTE:Their will be multiple posts to avoid running out of space, their is a limit to how many words each post can have, keep that in mind

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Normal monster cards are monster cards that do not have any sort of abilities/effects when played or at any time during the duel since they don’t have anything to use. You can identify a Normal Monster cards by identifying the orange like colored border of the card. An example of a Normal Monster card is Blue-Eyes White Dragon Level 8 Normal Monster card. When summoning a Normal Monster card, Normal Monster cards can be either summoned freely or by a release/sacrifice/tribute. A release/sacrifice/tribute is the same thing when the Level of this Normal Monster card is Level 5 or higher. Normal Monster cards Levels 1 – 4 don’t need any sort of tributes. In order to summon a Level 5 or Level 6 Normal Monster card, you will need to release 1 monster card you control (other than a token, we’ll get into that later and as long as it can be tribute). For Levels 7 or Levels 8 you will be required to release 2 monsters you control it’s the same as if it was a Level 5 or Level 6 Normal Monster card. As of current time 10 June 2012 there aren’t any Level 9, Level 10, Level 11 or a Level 12 Normal Monster card up to this point in the game franchise.

EFFECT MONSTERS

Just like Normal Monster cards, there are monster cards that can be grouped into Effect Monster cards. These Effect Monster cards carry certain abilities/effects on them when played and during a certain phase of the game. An Effect Monster can be something such as Barrel Dragon, Level 8. The effect of Barrel Dragon says “Once per turn, select 1 monster your opponent controls. Toss a coin 3 times, and if the result is 2 heads or more, destroy the selected monster. “ For you beginner’s out there in the world or new to Yu-Gi-Oh OCG/TCG. You might be thinking that Barrel Dragon’s effect can be used also during your opponent’s turn in reality you can’t. You can only use Barrel Dragon’s effect only on your turn and not your opponent’s unless the ability/effect says so. Other effects can be triggered by Flip Effect or by a phase effect, a triggering effect. A Flip Effect will mostly be triggered after the turn it is set in face-down defense mode and by either the enemy attacking it or the set face-down defense position monster is moved face-up in attack mode by you (assuming they don’t attack it for any reason). Once the monster is revealed Face-Up the effect of that monster shall activate, at this time, apply the effect of that monster. However not all Flip Effect Monster effects can activate after attacking them an example includes Invader Of The Throne. The Effect says “FLIP: Select 1 monster on your opponent's side of the field and switch control of it with this card. This effect cannot be activated during the Battle Phase. “ Since the Effect states “ This effect cannot be activated during the Battle Phase. “ It leads only to your turn or simply by letting the enemy using a spell card such as Swords Of Revealing Light as an example of other way of an effect like that. Just like the Normal Monster cards, you will need to release the same amount of monsters to summon a Level 5, Level 6, Level 7, Level 8, this time we have Monster Cards that go up to Level 10. To summon an Effect Monster Levels 9 or Level 10 you must release 3 monsters you control and once again, they can’t be tokens (unless the card states that the tokens can be used as a release to summon it). Some Effect Monsters can only have their effect(s) be activated in the player’s hand cards such as Gorz The Emissary Of Darkness, Swift scarecrow, Battle Fader, Effect Veiler, Honest e.t.c. All Effect Monsters, effects can be activated in a different way. You might want to bring a coin and a dice with you, some cards require you to flip a coin such as Time Wizard to use its effect and cards that need a dice would be Graceful Dice and Skull Dice as an example. “Cannot be Normal Summoned or Set. Must first be Special Summoned (from your hand) by banishing 1 LIGHT and 1 DARK monster from your Graveyard. “ when you see an Effect where you have to banish monster’s from your graveyard, you need to remove them you do not need to tribute 1 monster you control, you just banish those monsters for its summoning conditions other monsters similar to Chaos Sorcerer would be Effect Monsters such as Black Luster Soldier – Envoy Of The Beginning, Chaos Emperor Dragon – Envoy Of The End, Gigantes e.t.c those monster’s require you to banish them and you Special Summon them in Face-Up Attack or Face-Up Defense position since it is a Special Summon not a Normal Summon.

RITUAL MONSTERS

A third type of Monster cards can be grouped into Ritual Monster cards. These blue bordered Monster cards have to be summoned by a magic/spell card which has a symbol of fire as the magic/spell card. In order to summon any blue bordered Ritual Monster card you do need to use the Ritual magic/spell card that is used to summon them (even if it is a Level 1 – Level 4 Ritual Monster card. The offerings to summon them can be used on the monsters you control on your end of the field and the one’s in your hand also you may in fact use tokens for them (if I’m not mistaken, If I am, I don’t know what I’m talking about anymore lawl…). The monster(s) used for this type of summoning has to be an equal or greater level than the Ritual Monster card itself an example would be such as the Ritual Monster card “ Black Luster Soldier “ Black Luster Soldier is Level 8 so you will need to use enough monster cards and or tokens or both until the levels equal 8, because Black Luster Soldier is a Level 8 Monster card. You can however offer a Level 10 Yubel as 1 offering for it. Since Yubel is two Levels higher than Black Luster Soldier it can be used you can use any Level 8 monster card even a Black Luster Soldier to Ritual Summon Black Luster Soldier to the field.

FUSION MONSTERS

A fourth type of Monster cards are the Fusion Monster cards. These violet/purple bordered monster cards need two or more Fusion Material monster cards to summon them. The monster(s) required to Fusion Summon them depend on what Fusion Monster card it is, for example, to Fusion Summon the Fusion Monster Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon needs 3 Blue-Eyes White Dragons while other cards like Dark Paladin will only need 1 Dark Magician and 1 Buster Blader to Fusion Summon Dark Paladin. Fusion Monster cards can go up to Level 12 but don’t need any tributes on the field to play them, what I mean by that is, you don’t need to tribute any monsters you control on your field after you used Polymerization. Other ways to get Fusion Monsters on the field would be a Spell card called Dark Fusion which is used to get a Fusion Monster card out such as Evil Hero Inferno Wing some Fusion Monsters cards out, every Fusion Monster has a specific card to summon them, not all are the same. If you wanted to get out VWXYZ Dragon Catapult Cannon out there on the field in play you just need V Tiger Jet, W Wing Catapult, X Head Cannon, Y Dragon Head and Z Metal Tank, you never need a Polymerization card to Fusion Summon any of their combined forms.

SYNCHRO MONSTERS

During the Yu-Gi-Oh 5D’s era, a new type of Monster card was released they are known as the Synchro Monster cards. These white border Synchro Monster cards have a similar summoning to Ritual Monster cards. The Synchro Monster cards needs 1 Tuner or more than enough non-Tuner monster cards to summon them. A non-Tuner monster card is any monster card in the entire game (Normal, Effect, Ritual, Fusion, Synchro, up to this point in time) that will have an equal Level when all monster’s Levels are added together both the Tuners and all of the non-Tuners. Just like Ritual Monster cards you may use tokens as well as their levels to add up. With the material monsters used for a Synchro Monster’s summoning they are sent directly to the graveyard under normal circumstances unless another card states so. Here is an example on how to call out a Synchro Monster, let’s use the Level 8 Synchro Stardust Dragon:- Lv 1 Tuner + monster(s) enough levels that equal 7 [ 1 + 7 = 8 ]- Lv 2 Tuner + monster(s) enough levels that equal 6 [ 2 + 6 = 8 ]- Lv 3 Tuner + monster(s) enough levels that equal 5 [ 3 + 5 = 8 ]- Lv 4 Tuner + monster(s) enough levels that equal 4 [ 4 + 4 = 8 ]- Lv 5 Tuner + monster(s) enough levels that equal 3 [ 5 + 3 = 8 ]- Lv 6 Tuner + monster(s) enough levels that equal 2 [ 6 + 2 = 8 ]- Lv 7 Tuner + Lv 1 non-Tuner monster [ 7 + 1 = 8 ] Some Synchro Monsters may require you to use the same attribute/ type of monsters for its summoning. An example would be like Dark End Dragon. Dark End Dragon summoning condition “ 1 Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner DARK monsters “ the non-Tuner monster must be Dark Attribute to Synchro Summon Dark End Dragon.

TUNER MONSTERS

Tuner monsters are special monsters that are required to perform a Synchro Summon. In order to get your Synchro monster out you have to have a Tuner Monsters + 1 or more non-Tuner Monsters to perform this special Synchro Summon. You do need to calculate till all monsters on the field including the tuner monster levels equal that Synchro Monster’s level, no less and no more for the monsters you are using exceed that Synchro Monster’s level. For example let’s say you want to Syncrho Summon “Stardust Dragon” you can use any level Tuner other than a Level 8 Tuner (even though none actually exists). You use use the Level 1 Tuner monster “Effect Veiler” + a Lv 7 non-Tuner monster to call out Stardust Dragon on the field. You can verify if this monster is a Tuner or not by checking in the description effect of the monster if it says something like “Spellcaster / Tuner” for example.Please refer to SYNCHRO MONSTERS for the monster borders you get when you perform the summoning and getting them on the field.

XYZ MONSTERS

In the ZeXal Yu-Gi-Oh series the new black bordered monster cards known as XYZ cards have come. The XYZ monster cards have nothing to do with the VWXYZ cards in any way other than calling out an XYZ Summon. In order to XYZ Summon an XYZ monster, the monsters Levels must match with the Rank XYZ monster’s Rank. The Rank is the XYZ monster’s number. So if you wanted to summon No. 39 Utopia you will need 2x Level 4 monster cards because Utopia is a Rank 4 XYZ monster card. When the material monster cards are used to XYZ summon an XYZ monster you over place the XYZ monster card on top of the material cards which were used to call it out on the field. When you activate the effect of an XYZ monster you detach them which the material monster cards go to the graveyard but however although they enter the graveyard, they do not count as being destroyed an example would be detaching Sangan from a Rank 3 monster card would not activate Sangan’s effect because Sangan is not considered on the field or destroyed so Sangan’s effect cannot be activated under a circumstance like that.

* XYZ Monster cards do not have a level, so they can not be stopped by Gravity Bind.

• Note: XYZ is pronounced as “ Exceed “ apparently.

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In the Yu-Gi-Oh card game besides Monster cards, we have cards known as Spell cards which were formally known as Magic cards. When the game Magic The Gathering came out, the Yu-Gi-Oh Magic cards were then called Spell cards, probably to not mix up the two cards with each other. If a card from the old days says “ magic card “ you can use a Spell card with the same name since it is the same thing. Spell cards can be grouped into several types of Spell cards [ Normal Spell, Equip Spell, Continuous Spell, Field Spell, Ritual Spell, and finally Quick Play-Spell ]. All Spell cards excluding the Quick Play-Spell can only be activated during your turn unless another card states so. You activate these non-Quick Play Spell cards from your hand or on your field. Normal Spell cards have their effect activated once and then leave unless it stays on the field for a certain amount of turns such as Swords Of Revealing Light or Swords Of Concealing Light or perhaps Nightmare Steel Cage. These Normal Spell cards can be negated like every other Spell card by Trap cards which are pink purplish cards. For a beginner you may think you can use the Quick Play-Spell card to get rid of the effect of a Normal Spell card, you are right about that a Quick Play-Spell such as Mystical Space Typhoon can get rid of any Normal Spell cards but however Mystical Space Typhoon will never negate the effects of them, it will just destroy them not deactivate their effects since it doesn’t say it will negate the effects such as Magic Jammer, Magic Drain or Solemn Judgment. Those types of Trap cards will negate their effects and destroy them other than destroying them and not deactivating their effects. During your Battle Phase, you can launch any Quick Play-Spell Card from your hand onto the field directly, as long as you have at least 1 open Spell/Trap Card Zone you control. Once you set a face-down Quick Play-Spell card, you cannot activate it once you set it. During your opponent’s turn, you can activate it as If it was a Trap card, we’ll get into Trap Cards later. An Equip Spell however can be destroyed by a Quick Play-Spell such as Mystical Space Typhoon although it doesn’t stop the effect of the Equip Spell card it will send it to the graveyard making it powerless since it was destroyed in an instant. Once the Equip Spell card is attached on a monster who you or your opponent controls it will most likely stay on that monster unless the Equip Spell card is destroyed by card effects or if the monster its being attached to gets destroyed or set face-down on the field which eliminates the Equip Spell effects on that monster card. As it is stated from the Ritual Monster section, Ritual Spell cards are used to Ritual Summon Ritual Monster cards. When a continuous Spell Card has been played on the field, the card will remain on the field until its effect resolves, sent back to the owner’s hand or if it is destroyed by anything. These Continuous Spell cards do have major weakness I’ll tell you that, since they remain face-up on the field, you can easily destroy them since it’s an easy target to select. The final Spell cards that exists in the Yu-Gi-Oh OCG/TCG game is the Field Spell cards. These Field Spell cards are cards which will most likely raise or decrease a certain type of monster card’s attack and or defense points depending on type or perhaps attribute. Not all Field Spell’s raise attacks or defense some might not even provide attack/ defense enhancements but do other effects such as The Lost Sanctuary In The Sky which is a Field Spell but all battle damage to a Fairy-Type Monster card is due to 0. Just like all Spell cards you may use other card effects to destroy them or by easily placing a new Field Spell in play. In doing so the current Field Spell is automatically destroyed and the newly played Field Spell shall take effect on the terrain and have its effects applied to the game. If a set monster gets attacked and the Field Spell gives it a power boost, you will have to apply the Field Spell attack/ defense enhancements or de-enhancements on the monster(s) before damage calculations to a player.

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With Spell Cards in the Yu-Gi-Oh game, there are cards known as Trap Cards. These Trap Cards can be classified into 3 categories [Normal Trap, Continuous Trap and Counter Trap]. The trap cards (any category) must be set face down on the field before activation and after the turn has ended. After the turn has ended the trap card and its effect can come into play depending on how it will activate. Some trap cards can only be used during the Battle Phase such as Mirror Force, Negate Attack, Trap Jammer as examples. Some can be activated after the turn has ended such as Waboku, Solemn Wishes. Other trap cards can only be used to get rid of other cards off the field weather it is on the field or simply returning them back to the hand/ extra deck such as Solemn Judgment or Force Back. With Normal Trap cards, once the effect has been applied, it will leave the field. Just like Continuous Spell cards, once the Continuous Trap card is activated after being set and the turn ends it will stay on the field until it is destroyed. Unlike Normal Trap cards and Continuous Trap cards, Counter Trap cards serve as the only way to deactivate other Counter Trap cards and also they can only be stopped by other Counter Trap cards other than monster effects. So the only way to destroy and negate a Counter Trap card is by fighting fire with fire which is a Counter Trap card against it. Some trap cards can also become a monster card, we call these trap cards a Trap Monster, trap cards that can attack monsters/enemy as if they were monster cards. Since these can become a monster card, they gain the strength of a monster card but they do still have the weakness of monster cards and trap cards since they are still considered a trap card as well. Cards like Embodiment Of Apophis

SET

With the information with the 3 different card types and their categories which they might be classified into you might have seen the word “ set “. Set implies to a card being face down which the enemy won’t know what card that is. Set monster cards will be place horizontally face-down in defense mode while set spell or trap cards will be place vertically face-down on the field. With a vertically set face-down spell or trap card your opponent won’t know what kind of card it is so you can either make them think you have a powerful trap card or a really crummy card set which can be used as a bluff to live for another turn. Setting face-down defense position monster cards can probably lead to one of three things, 1. Its an effect monster which the controller needs it to be flipped for its effect to be activated, 2. A card that will eventually be destroyed because it is not strong enough to attack an enemy's monster 3. A Spell/Trap card will be used after that monster has been flipped up or possibly destroyed and sent to the graveyard.

DECK/EXTRA DECK

In a deck, you will be required to have at least 40 cards in your main dueling deck you cannot count Fusion Monster cards, Synchro Monster cards or XYZ Monster cards. Fusion Monster cards, Synchro Monster cards and XYZ Monster cards all go into your Extra Deck. This Extra Deck can only contain up to 15 monster cards (same cards or duplicates). You can look at your Extra Deck at any time in the game, you pull these cards out when you are performing a Fusion Summon, Synchro Summon or an XYZ Summon. In your main dueling deck you should have all three card types in your deck, monsters, spells, and trap cards these 3 card types should support your deck. It depends what kind of deck you are using and what cards you need in them. If you just run a deck fully based on monster cards you can get owned by power up Spell/Trap card enhancements on the enemy’s monster card.

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During a match duel, you can have up to 15 cards in your Side Deck. A Match Duel consists of 3 duels, if player A has 3 wins and 0 losses the match ends with that duelist as the victor or if player A has 2 wins and 1 loss, player A is considered the winner. If all 3 duels ends in a draw the match itself ends in a draw. During the Match Duel you can swap out up to 15 cards from your Side Deck with 15 cards in your Main Dueling Deck.

DAMAGE CALCULATION

When it comes to learning how damage calculations will work, you will have to know which card’s attack and defense is greater than the opposing monster card’s strength. The greater the attack the greater the damage done to an opponent. You calculate damage like this if Player A has The White Magical Hat [ ATK: 1000 ][ DEF: 700 ] in attack mode and while Player B has The Winged Dragon Guardian Of The Fortress #1 [ ATK: 1400 ][ DEF: 1200 ] in attack mode. Player B can make Player A drop 400 LP because ( 1400 [The Winged Dragon Guardian Of The Fortress #1] – 1000 [The White Magical Hat] ) isn’t strong enough to fight back so Player A drops 400 LP, assuming both monster cards are in attack mode. If a monster is attacking a defense position monster card face-up/ face-down, if Player A has The White Magical Hat in attack mode and player B has a face-down set The Winged Dragon Guardian Of The Fortress #1 in defense mode [DEF: 1200] and Player A attacks the set monster with The White Magical Hat, The White Magical Hat does not die but player A will lose 200 LP because The Winged Dragon Guardian Of The Fortress #1 has 1200 so 200 LP of battle damage is dealt to Player A. (1200 – 1000 =). If Player A has The White Magical Hat and Player B has The White Magical Hat on the field as well, both White Magical Hats are in attack mode, If either player chooses to attack The White Magical Hat with their The White Magical Hat, both The White Magical Hats will be destroyed because both attack points are equal in strength to both The White Magical Hats are destroyed and sent to the graveyard, this applies to any two monsters with the same attack points along with boosted attack to match the other monster’s attack points. It doesn’t matter what the monster(s) names are as long as their attacks are equal in strength (apply the attack increasement) to reach the other monster’s attack and they will both die since the attacks are equal. If an enemy’s monster wages a direct attack on your field, you have no monsters on your field to protect yourself you will be forced to take direct damage according/ depending on how much the enemy’s current ATK is this includes any enhancements for example, if Dark Magician ATK was increased by Black Pendant, then the direct attack from Dark Magician would be 3000 not 2500 due to Dark Magicians ATK was enhanced by Black Pendants 500 attack point boost. Then your Life Points will drop from that attack If you were at full 8000 Life Points and Dark Magician attacked you directly for 3000 then 8000 – 3000 = 5000 Life Points remaining and that is your new current Life Point score.

MONSTER RESSURECTIONS

In the game, most monsters can be easily resurrected from the graveyard while some cannot due to their ability or summon’s didn’t appear on the field when they could have. Some monster’s that cannot be resurrected from the graveyard would be monster cards such as The Creator, Elemental Hero Flame Wingman and Elemental Hero Shining Flare Wingman. The Creator effect says “ This card cannot be Special Summoned from the Graveyard. Once per turn, you can select 1 monster in your Graveyard, then send 1 card from your hand to the Graveyard and Special Summon that monster. “ Both Elemental Flame Wingman and Elemental Hero Shining Flare Wingman have their effects in them “ Must be Fusion Summoned and cannot be Special Summoned by other ways. When this card destroys a monster by battle and sends it to the Graveyard: Inflict damage to your opponent equal to the ATK of the destroyed monster in the Graveyard. “ – Elemental Hero Flame Wingman. “Must be Fusion Summoned and cannot be Special Summoned by other ways. This card gains 300 ATK for each "Elemental HERO" card in your Graveyard. When this card destroys a monster by battle and sends it to the Graveyard: Inflict damage to your opponent equal to the ATK of the destroyed monster in the Graveyard. “ – Elemental Hero Shining Flare Wingman. The Creator effect says “ This card cannot be Special Summoned from the Graveyard. “ so you cannot use cards like Monster Reborn, Premature Burial, Call Of The Haunted them it. Elemental Hero Flame Wingman and Elemental Hero Shining Flare Wingman say “ Must be Fusion Summoned and cannot be Special Summoned by other ways. “ so the only way to get an Elemental Hero Flame Wingman and Elemental Hero Shining Flare Wingman on the field is by Fusion Summoning them on to the field, which is the only way of getting them on the field. Along the same line, their effects also say “ and cannot be Special Summoned “ just like The Creator you cannot use Monster Reborn, Premature Burial, Call Of The Haunted on them at all. If you wanted to have an option to use them once again for those three cards as an example you can use a card called Monster Reincarnation to give you a chance to add them back into your hand/ Extra Deck ( Fusion, Synchro, XYZ ). If you see monster cards such as those that need you to banish monster attributes from the graveyard like Chaos Sorcerer, Black Luster Soldier – Envoy Of The Beginning or Gigantes as an example. You do need to have performed their summon normally by removing from play the correct attributes the first time. If you do that you can resurrect them as well. However if you have not banished the right attributes from play to Special Summon Chaos Sorcerer from your hand and Chaos Sorcerer has been sent to the graveyard, you cannot resurrect Chaos Sorcerer at all, since you never banished the correct attributes for its summoning. The same goes with the blue bordered ritual monsters. You have to have at least Ritual Summoned them at least once in order to bring it back from the graveyard.

UNLIMITED/SEMI-LIMITED/LIMITED/FORBIDDEN

In the Yu-Gi-Oh! OCG/TCG card game, a maximum of 3 of the same cards can be in each of your deck(s). Regardless of the card’s image (Monster, Spell, Trap) it can only be at 3 at the maximum. When any card is at 3 per deck the cards are called Unlimited so you can have up to 3 in your deck. Not all cards can be Unlimited, each March 1st and September 1st KONAMI will change the Advanced (Forbidden) Format every year. When a card is Semi-Limited those cards are at 2 per deck, A card that is at 1 per deck is called Limited, lastly If a card is not Unlimited, Semi-Limited, Limited that card is known as Banned or Forbidden so it is at 0 per deck. If Chaos Sorcerer was Semi-Limited you cannot have 2 in your main deck and 1 in your side deck, because you can switch cards in your main deck and between your side deck so if you want to have a legal deck/ side deck that has Chaos Sorcerer your main deck needs to have either 0, 1, or 2 in your main deck while your side deck has the difference till the sum is 2.Example:Chaos Sorcerer per main deck/side deckDeck: 2x [ Side Deck: 0x ] ( 2 + 0 = 2 )Deck 1x [ Side Deck 1x ] ( 1 + 1 = 2 )Deck 0x [Side Deck up to 2x ]• Side Deck can contain 0 in your side deck• Side Deck can contain 1 in your side deck• Side Deck can contain 2 in your side deckYou do not need to have the same card in your side deck with the one in your main dueling deck if you choose not to, its optional, not required by any means.

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You might also know that there is something called a “ TAG DUEL “ in a Tag Duel each player partners up with somebody else, and takes on 2 other players. In this situation you and your opponent along with the enemy’s do the following same thing. Each team shares the Life Points (whatever you want to start off with, that matches with the enemy’s, If its 8000 Life Points, then the enemy will start off with 8000). Each team share’s the 5 monster card zone and the 5 spell/trap card zone. You can use their monsters as well as yours to attack your opponent’s monsters/Life Points. You as well as your partner and the enemy team will be swapping member’s who take turns. EXAMPLE:Your Team (Player A [Left], Player B [Right]Enemy Team (Player C [Left], Player D [Right]Player A goes firstPlayer D goes secondPlayer B goes thirdPlayer C goes fourth Same winning conditions are applied as if it was just 1 on 1. You can have a MATCH Duel in a Tag Duel if you choose to duel that way.

ANIME VS REAL LIFE CARDS/EFFECTS

As you know in the Yu-Gi-Oh! OCG/TCG there is an anime version but I would say do not pay any direct attention to that show when you want to compare it to the OCG/TCG. Due to cards being different or very weird card abilities which do not exist in the real card game. Examples would be like Atem used Catapult Turtle to destroy Panik’s Castle Wall levitation during the Duelist Kingdom series. Gear Golem The Moving Fortress not having an effect when the camera angle viewed in Seeker’s hand when Seeker was squared off against Atem during the Battle City Tournament hosted by Seto Kaiba. When Atem faced off against Seto Kaiba near the entrance to Pegasus’s Castle, Celtic Guardian sliced 1 head of the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon’s head off while it still stayed on the field, then Seto Kaiba resurrected 1 Blue-Eyes head. In reality the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon would have been killed. Don’t pay too much attention, to the anime and think it can be applied in real life. In the Duelist Kingdom tournament, Atem used Monster Reborn to resurrect Blue-Eyes White Dragon and then somehow used Book Of Secret Arts on Mystical Elf raising the attack of Blue-Eyes White Dragon from 3000 to 4100. This stuff doesn’t exist in the real card game. I hope this tutorial has helped you understand how to the OCG/TCG card game.

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Chain(s) you may have noticed that you can counter the enemy’s card’s when they attempt to summon a monster or activate spell/trap cards. If the enemy summons Alpha The Magnet Warrior in attack mode, you can launch Trap Hole to destroy it. However the enemy may try to stop your Trap Hole effect, they can do this by using cards such as Solemn Judgment, Seven Tools Of The Bandit, or have Alpha The Magnet Warrior switch to set mode by Book Of Moon. If they try and do something to make your Trap Hole useless you can try and deactivate their card by using Counter Trap cards against them (other than monster cards such as Light And Darkness Dragon). When card’s effect pile up on top of each other, this is called a chain you figure out what gets its effect negated. You start things off by going backwards by which card was activated last to see what shall happen. If you negate the enemy’s Solemn Judgment, Seven Tools Of The Bandit, or Book Of Moon by your Seven Tools Of The Bandit. Then this example might help you understand chains.- (1) You summoned Alpha The Magnet Warrior- (2) Enemy: Used Trap Hole- (3) You used Solemn Judgment- (4) Enemy: used Solemn JudgmentNow let’s work out way backwards.(4) Enemy: used Solemn Judgment, since they used Solemn Judgment to negate your Solemn Judgment then the Enemy’s Solemn Judgment will result in winning because it is the card activated last. Note: This takes care of ( 3 & 4 )(2) Enemy used Trap Hole, since there are no other cards used during the chain, Alpha The Magnet Warrior will be sent to the graveyard immediately. Note: This takes care of ( 1 & 2 )

COUNTERS

You might see on some cards these “ counter(s) “ on these cards. These counters serve no actual purpose unless another card has some sort of effect applies to these counter(s) on cards. Such as A-Counter ( aka Alien Counter ) or Spell Counter. Some Effect Monsters can use their effects launched if the effect has counter(s) in it. An effect that uses Spell Counters would be a Monster card such as Royal Magical Library which needs 3 Spell Cards used which Royal Magical Library gains 3 Spell Counters and then the user can give up the 3 Spell Counters to draw 1 additional card during Main Phase 1 or Main Phase 2. Although Royal Magical Library’s effect does not state it on the card, its common sense due to you can only draw cards during the Draw Phase only, StandBy Phase to pay for card effects, Battle Phase battle enemy monster’s only. End Phase your turn at this phase ends and your opponent makes a move.

TOKENS

Tokens these tokens occupy monster card zones and serve very small purposes in this game and can actually annoy your opponent. Cards such as Ojama Trio which occupy’s the enemy’s Monster Card Zone of 3 spaces, If you use it and your opponent has 2 zone’s occupied by anything, monsters or tokens then I guess they can’t summon that monster from their hand since all 5 Monster Card Zones are taking up space, also the enemy who currently controls the Ojama Trio Tokens, will lose 900 LP’s when all 3 have been destroyed.

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Now that you have heard learned about Monster Cards (all types), Spell Cards (all types) and the Trap Cards (all types). The last thing you would need to know is victory conditions in the game. Victory can be achieved by 5-6 ways in the game. 1. You can claim victory by depleting/ reducing the enemy Life Points down to 0.2. You can claim an automatic victory by completing Exodia in your hand, the cards you need to have you in your hand are the following- Exodia The Forbidden One- Right Arm Of The Forbidden One- Right Leg Of The Forbidden One- Right Leg Of The Forbidden One- Right Arm Of The Forbidden One3. You can claim automatic victory by have your Spell/Trap card zone’s occupied by Destiny Board (can also be called Ouiji Board)- Destiny Board (Letter: F)- Spirit Message I- Spirit Message N- Spirit Message A- Spirit Message LJapanese OCG: DEATH4. You can win in 20 turns if you use Final Countdown, after you paid 2000 LP you win within 20 turns after activation and as long as you have some Life Points remaining.5. If anyone’s deck has 0 cards left in it, then when that player’s next turn comes around and during the Draw Phase, they will lose the duel due to not being \6. The last possible way to duel a duel is by using cards that will let you win the MATCH. Note: this isn’t necessary to win a duel, this will only apply for a MATCH duel, remember a MATCH duel consists of 3 duels, If you can deplete your enemy’s Life Points down to 0 using (Enter Effect Monster Name Here) by it you will win the MATCH.

DEFINITIONSAutomatic Victory (Definiton): Once you have acquired these cards Exodia (in your hand) OR Destiny Board (on your Spell/Trap card zone) you WIN automatically as long as the enemy hasn’t achieved the same goal to what you were going for. Banish(ed): Banish/Banished means the card(s) will be set out of play for the remainder of the duel unless it is just temporary such as Gold Sarcophagus/ Different Dimension Capsule.Pierc(ing): If your monster ATK is greather than the DEF if the enemy’s monster, then deal the difference between your ATK and the enemy’s DEF.EXAMPLE: Cyber End Dragon [ATK: 8000] VS Dark Magician [DEF: 2100]Solution: 8000 – 2100 = 5900 Life Points decrease.

Draw/Tie: If both players Life Points hit 0000 (0) at the same time, the duel/match shall end in a draw, no winners, no losers.

If both players have Exodia In their hand, then the duel is a Draw. Which is the same thing if both player’s Life Points were depleted at the same time.

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During your turn, you can only conduct 1 Normal Summon per turn this allows you to either Normal Summon 1 monster face-up attack mode or you can Set 1 monster face-down defense position. You can however conduct as many Special Summon you want per turn. There is no limit on how many Special Summons you can perform, you can perform as many as you want unless another card limit’s you to or you run out of monster card zone space. If you paid any attention to the actual Yu-Gi-Oh! Anime Japanese/ English version you might have noticed that monster's are placed face-up defense position, this is just an Anime thing. In the real life game, you cannot put monster's face-up defense mode under normal circumstances, putting monster's face-up defense mode is an illegal move when its a Normal Summon counting towards your 1 turn Normal Summon monster play.

VIDEO GAMES VS REAL LIFE

In some Yu-Gi-Oh! Games they follow the old rules while some don’t follow any of the actual rules. The games that don’t follow the actual rules to begin with would be games such as Dark Duel Stories, Duel Monsters 2, Duel Monsters 3, Duel Monsters 4, The Sacred Cards, Reshef Of Destruction. The real game does not have attributes defeating each other just because of attribute. Don’t pay any attention to those games which monsters kill each other just because of their attribute triumphs over theirs regardless of their attack points. Other games do follow the old game with the first priority rules such as Eternal Duelist Soul, Stairway Destined Duel World Wide Edition, GX Duel Academy, GX Spirit Caller, World Championship 2007, World Championship 2008, 5D’s Stardust Accelerator World Championship 2009, Reverse Of Arcadia World Championship 2010, Over The Nexus World Championship 2011, GX Tag Force 1, GX Tag Force 2, Duel Monsters GX Tag Force 3, 5D’s Tag Force 4, 5D’s Tag Force 5, 5D’s Tag Force 6. Those games follow the actual rules of the past rather than attributes defeating each other.

There is a Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Master’s Guide DVD which exists on YouTube/DailyMotion that stuff is outdated due to no Synchro’s/ XYZ Monsters existing at that time or the priority change. The video is narrated by Yugi Muto and Joey Wheeler English dub voice actors.

One last thing, any questions? Please ask an experienced Yu-Gi-Oh! Players on this forum for card rulings/ guidance if you need any.

This is miscellaneous of the game of Yu-Gi-Oh!. Some cards in the card might be confusing for beginners to understand and I’ll explain what these cards do and/ or what is suppose to happen during the game. The first card I’ll talk about is the normal trap card from the very first English TCG Yu-Gi-Oh! Starter Decks ever released in North America. The trap card “ Reverse Trap “ Effect: All increases and decreases to ATK and DEF are reversed for the turn in which this card is activated. When this card first came out for me the card effect never made any sense until a former friend of mine told me what it did. Reverse Trap reverses the enhancement/de-hancement of power-up/ power-down effects. For example If you were to use Axe Of Despair and equip it to your Blue-Eyes White Dragon [ATK: 3000] the ATK of Blue-Eyes White Dragon will raise from 3000 to 4000 making Blue-Eyes White Dragon having 4000 ATK points. IF Reverse Trap is used by the enemy Reverse Trap would do the reverse of increasing Blue-Eyes White Dragon ATK points to 2000 from Blue-Eyes White Dragon original attack points. You might be thinking Blue-Eyes White Dragon ATK would revert back to 3000 but no it doesn’t, Reverse Trap makes Blue-Eyes White Dragon ATK go back to normal and then you reverse the increase/decrease of ATK/DEF point gaining for any card and on both sides of the field. • Blue-Eyes White Dragon (Level 8, Light) [Dragon]: This legendary dragon is a powerful engine of destruction. Virtually invincible, very few have faced this awesome creature and lived to tell the tale.• Reverse Trap (Normal Trap): All increases and decreases to ATK and DEF are reversed for the turn in which this card is activated. If the enemy has 4000 Life Points remaining and you have a set normal trap card “ Magic Cylinder “ and the enemy has Injection Fairy Lily [ATK: 400] on the field in ATK mode and the effect of Injection Fairy Lily is activated making the enemy’s Life Points dropping by 2000 to raise Injection Fairy Lily’s ATK to 3400. You can activate Magic Cylinder and bounce the attack back but however, only 400 points of damage is dealt back at the enemy not 3400. Their might be an argument on both sides of the field saying its 400 not 3400, this is because Magic Cylinder stops the attack and fire’s it right back, since the attack of Injection Fairy Lily was stopped/negated the attack ends Injection Fairy Lily’s ATK goes back down to 400. Then Magic Cylinder re-fires it’s target back at the enemy at 400 damage not 3400.

• Injection Fairy Lily (Level 4, Earth) [Spellcaster/ Effect]: During the Damage Step, when this card battles, you can pay 2000 Life Points to have this card gain 3000 ATK during the Damage Step only.• Negate Attack (Counter Trap): Activate only when an opponent’s monster declares an attack. Negate the attack and end the Battle Phase.NOTE: Using current BANNED CARDS from the past! (July 3, 2012) Let’s say your enemy Fusion Summoned Thousand Eye’s Restrict on his/her turn and when the turn passes on to you Fusion Summoned Thousand Eye’s Restrict now you and your opponent might be slightly confused on who can attack and who can’t right? So what happens in this situation, the answer is that no one can attack as long as both Thousand Eye’s Restrict’s are face-up on the field. The enemy’s Thousand Eye’s Restrict stops all other monsters from attacking and your Thousand Eye’s Restrict prevents the enemy’s Thousand Eye’s Restrict from attacking, at the same time the enemy’s Thousand Eye’s Restrict will prevent your Thousand Eye’s Restrict from attacking. So like I said before no one can attack in this situation, even if one player controlled both Thousand Eye’s Restrict, no one can attack either both Thousand Eye’s Restrict will stop the other one from attacking.• Thousand-Eyes Restrict (Level 1, Dark) [Spellcaster/Fusion/Effect]: “Relinquished” + “Thousand-Eyes Idol” Other monsters cannot change their battle position or attack. Once per turn, you can equip 1 monster your opponent controls to this card (max 1). This card’s ATK and DEF become the same as the equipped monster’s. If this card would be destroyed by battle, the equipped monster is destroyed instead.

When Mystic Tomato/ Pyramid Turtle/ Shining Angel are destroyed as a result of battle. Their effect will activate allowing them to search and special summon any monster who fits the requirement specified on the card effect. Some beginners do not understand that level does not matter at all when these cards are destroyed as a result of battle or that they did not read the effect carefully and think they activate when they are sent to the graveyard by anything. When any of those three monster cards are destroyed any monster of any level can be special summoned but as long as its ATK and DEF are not greater than the ATK/DEF on the card which was just destroyed.• Mystic Tomato (Level 4, Dark) [Plant/Effect]: When this card is destroyed by battle and sent to the Graveyard, you can Special Summon 1 DARK monster with 1500 or less ATK from your Deck in face-up Attack Position.• Pyramid Turtle (Level 4, Earth) [Zombie/Effect]: When this card is destroyed by battle and sent to the Graveyard, you can Special Summon 1 Zombie-Type monster with 2000 or less DEF from your Deck.• Shining Angel (Level 4, Fairy) [Fairy/Effect]: When this card is sent to the Graveyard as a result of battle, you can Special Summon 1 LIGHT monster with an ATK of 1500 or less in face-up Attack Position from your Deck. Then shuffle your deck.

NOTE: Read the bold effect carefully. The monster’s level that is being Special Summoned from the deck can by any level of your choice as long as it’s ATK/DEF is not greater than the ATK/DEF being specified on the card which was destroyed.

When Pot Of Avarice is activated, you can choose ANY Monster card groups to be added to your deck, this includes Synchro Monster cards and XYZ Monster cards. So what I’m trying to get here is that if you chosen to move any 5 Synchro/ XYZ Monster cards from your graveyard back into your deck in this case the Extra Deck, you can do that and just reshuffle your deck and draw 2 cards. Of course since any combination of Synchro and XYZ monster cards cannot be added into your main deck but your Extra deck, you would not have to worry to draw those 5 monster cards. So what I’m trying to get at is that you can draw any 2 cards in your deck and possibly re-summon them. I guess you can say it’s a Pot Of Greed if you only chose to combine a random combination sort of Synchro and XYZ Monster cards back into your Extra Deck.

Online Video Demo

Here you can watch how to play the Yu-Gi-Oh card game up till the Synchro Monsters (5D's era). Note ZeXal Xyz monsters don't exist in this video.

If you notice on some cards such as Solemn Judgment, Solemn Warning these cards are cards that do require a payment to pay and use them. Once you decide to activate them, you muse PAY IMMEDIATELY meaning you can not change your mind once activated. Even if the card is negated and destroyed you don't get your Life Points back at all. Once activated you can't get those LP's back no matter what, even if the card gets negated by like Dark Bribe, Seven Tools Of The Bandit, Solemn Judgment e.t.c. A cost is logically payment thing, you activated now pay the price!

The difference between the two is that you cannot gain LP if your using a cost card and having a Prime Material Dragon out their on the field. You can however gain LP if its a burn card effect. So if you have a Prime Material Dragon out their on the field and you activated Solemn Warning you will be loosing those 2000 LP's and NOT gaining 2000 LPs. If the enemy had activated Just Desserts you will gain LP's with a Prime Material Dragon face-up on the field due to Just Desserts is a burn damage card not a cost card.